Sierra fire reaches Yosemite, threatens towns

Its size doubles - thousands of structures in danger

A firefighter uses a handtool to extinguish a hot spot from the Rim Fire near Camp Mather on Friday, Aug. 23, 2013. Burning near Yosemite National Park, the wildfire has scorched over 150 square miles of terrain. less

A firefighter uses a handtool to extinguish a hot spot from the Rim Fire near Camp Mather on Friday, Aug. 23, 2013. Burning near Yosemite National Park, the wildfire has scorched over 150 square miles of ... more

A firefighter uses a handtool to extinguish a hot spot from the Rim Fire near Camp Mather on Friday, Aug. 23, 2013. Burning near Yosemite National Park, the wildfire has scorched over 150 square miles of terrain. less

A firefighter uses a handtool to extinguish a hot spot from the Rim Fire near Camp Mather on Friday, Aug. 23, 2013. Burning near Yosemite National Park, the wildfire has scorched over 150 square miles of ... more

Tuolumne County - Firefighters worked Friday to save thousands of homes in the Sierra foothills as the massive Rim Fire doubled in size from a day earlier and, for the first time, crossed into Yosemite National Park.

There was some good news, though: Firefighters gained the upper hand in a battle to save San Francisco's Camp Mather, just a mile west of Yosemite, which has long served as a retreat for city families.

The camp, from which 200 seniors were evacuated Tuesday, was in the path of the blaze, which has charred nearly 200 square miles of rugged forest land and altered the late-summer plans of thousands of people. But crews of firefighters held back the flames.

"We're not out of the woods yet," said camp caretaker Paul Spring. "But we're a little safer."

That same note of tentative optimism was sounded Friday evening by a spokesman for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.

"We are definitely making progress," said Daniel Berlant of Cal Fire. The fire had consumed more than 125,000 acres, he said, but as of Friday evening it was 5 percent contained - up from 2 percent earlier in the day.

Still, the damage and danger continued to spread.

A small portion of the roughly 2,800 residents of Pine Mountain Lake were under orders to evacuate, while most of the community was advised - but not required - to leave. Residents of nearby Groveland, population 600; Tuolumne City, population 1,800; and the Ponderosa Hill area were also advised to leave.

A thick blanket of smoke enveloped the communities. The air smelled like ash.

"It's really eerie here," said Pat Wrinkle, 59, who grabbed what he could from his ranch home at Pine Mountain Lake and headed out with his wife and two long-haired dachshunds, Cole and Simba.

2,700 firefighters

More than 2,700 state, federal and local firefighters from around the nation had joined the fight against the Rim Fire by Friday evening, and large air tankers battled the blaze from above. But dry weather, rugged terrain and gusty winds limited efforts to carve out containment lines.

More than 5,500 homes were threatened, Berlant said, and four homes had burned.

At Camp Mather, logs smoldered on either side of the entry road. Foam retardant kept the fire at bay.

The popular Strawberry Music Festival, which was scheduled to take place at the site over the Labor Day weekend, has been called off. It's the third time in the festival's 32-year history that fire has canceled the event, which is held twice a year.

Organizers said Friday that they're considering rescheduling in October.

The camp was one of several evacuated over the past week as the Rim Fire neared. On Friday, officials revealed that a cabin had burned at emptied-out Camp Tawonga, which is popular with Bay Area families, but said other structures there had been spared.

Camp Tawonga, located west of Yosemite and Camp Mather and north of Highway 120, was established in 1925 and caters mainly to Jewish families.

"The growth of this fire is just something you don't see often," said Cal Fire spokeswoman Lynn Tolmachoff. "If you get one a year, it's unusual. If you get one every 10 years, that may be the norm."

The fire also threatened power transmission lines owned by San Francisco and poses a risk to water quality at Hetch Hetchy Reservoir, the city's water supply. Fearing that ash could pollute the water, city officials announced Friday that they were prepared to tap backup reservoirs.

State of emergency

Late Friday, Gov. Jerry Brown declared a state of emergency for San Francisco, 150 miles from the fire, acknowledging the threat to the city's power lines and stations in the fire area. He had already declared a state of emergency in Tuolumne County this week, which will help free up money and resources to fight the blaze. The blaze crossed into Yosemite's western boundary Friday, authorities said, and forested land around Lake Eleanor was aflame. The relatively low-elevation section of park was closed to the public, and the park's Highway 120 entrance remained closed.

Most of the park is still open and can be reached via Highway 140 from Merced and Highway 41 from Fresno.

Park officials said they didn't think the fire would affect visitors - at least anytime soon. On Friday, the blaze was at least 20 miles from popular Yosemite Valley.

"If it continues to move in the direction it has in the last day or so, it's just moving into wilderness," said park spokeswoman Kari Cobb. "There's no structures, nothing there."

In Groveland, a popular gateway to the park on Highway 120, merchants said tourism had ground to a halt. Jenn Edwards, owner of the Hotel Charlotte, said she was getting phone calls from visitors canceling their vacations.

She and her husband, who now have an 8-week-old baby boy, moved to Groveland a year and a half ago from Seattle to open the hotel.

"I always thought that in California, you have to worry about earthquakes," she said, "but up here it's fire."